Tau·tol·o·gy: the saying of the same thing twice in different words
As a maker and lover of zines, “BOOK ART” immediately grabbed my attention. Curated by Ruth Lingen and Marilyn Waligore, over a dozen artists’ works and collaborations share the common medium of books, expanding our preconceptions about the form. Located at the SP/N Gallery and frequently featuring UTD faculty, students and alumni, the gallery space is modern, bright and filled with ever-evolving shows from a wide range of curators.
“Snapshot: Works by UTD Photo Faculty,” curated by SP/N Gallery Director Danielle Avram, opened the same night on Sept. 5. The gallery space itself poses a challenge for curation and organization, as it frequently holds multiple exhibitions at a time and is both open concept and figure-eight shaped, leading the viewer to meander through multiple shows without realizing, as was frequently remarked upon during the reception. Though one could assume the medium alone would tell the audience which pieces belong to which show, Susan Kae Grant’s “Shadowed Memory” portraits and photographs by Bob Holman and Chuck Close in an art book paired with poetry both blur the lines between the two exhibitions.
Fatemeh Baigmoradi’s “Other” is another example of the overlap between the two shows; I thought it was a part of “BOOK ART” until retrieving the label information to write on it. It takes the form of a family scrapbook and is the only piece in either exhibition that consists of a single artbook which the viewer can flip through. Baigmoradi’s father was forced to burn their family photos out of fear of arrest during political upheaval in Iran, which the artist reenacts with other families’ photos with surreptitious rips in the faces, deliberately folded back into the previous page and forming half-circles like lockets or hearts. It’s the first time I’ve seen photographs reproduced in double-sided form in a book, as the weathered reverse of the pictures are printed in perfect alignment on the other side of the page. It’s a little touch that adds to the impact of a quite special and moving piece.
“BOOK ART” does, quite fittingly, have a pamphlet of images of nearly every artist’s work — though not all — along with label information and artist statements. The lack of tombstone labels — that is, labels by the art pieces themselves —is a puzzling choice, however, and adds to the difficulty in delineating the show from “Snapshot,” which does have traditional labels but no pamphlet. I’m not sure if the decision came down to wanting the book format and not wanting to double-dip on labeling, or if it’s a reflection of a trend away from labels next to artworks, as in the amazing but very difficult to follow exhibition “You Stretched Diagonally Across It: Contemporary Tapestry” at Dallas Contemporary. I’ll always love you, museum tombstones.
Though it does not entirely address these concerns, in the time since opening night SP/N has added QR codes on the corner between the two shows with a link to the show checklist, though requiring specific technology to access that information means not every attendee can see it. The gallery also added a “please browse through” label under the book “A Couple of Ways of Doing Something,” which speaks to the receptive and fluid nature of the gallery’s team.
While I was glad to see representation of zines — the underground corollary to more establishment-leaning art books — in Dwayne Carter’s work, their placement at the front vestibule of the gallery felt disjointed from the rest of the show, giving the appearance of a third exhibition in its own right. The comparative lack of information on materials in both the tombstone and pamphlet descriptions also left me unsure if the artist’s painterly photorealism was entirely digital manipulation of images or involved traditional mediums. However, this display did successfully channel my desire to pick up and handle the books, as Carter’s booklets were laid out across a table for visitors to peruse, with larger reproductions of several pieces on the walls behind.
Continuing a zine-like format, Barbara Henry’s bespoke alphabet in “The Seaweed Journal and Puzzles” was whimsical and graphically intriguing. I was especially inspired by Rachel Livedalen’s “Plates,” as its rainbow color swatches over black and white art history textbooks spoke my language. “Electrolyte in Blue” is a multicolored floral collaboration between Jim Dine and Ruth Lingen, but the nature of their work together isn’t included, so it may be just for those who attended Lingen’s artist talk the night before.
Standing out quite literally as a hanging immersive sculpture, Beldan Sezen’s “Solitary Confinement” is made of lightweight Misu paper that billows from the slightest movement of air, the interactive structure covered in oil stick writing, half of which is only legible when read from the inside. Even as someone prone to claustrophobia, I found the experience comforting. Bright gallery lights filter down to a warm glow as the surprisingly durable fabric-like paper flutters around you. Equally movable but only in theory, Maedeh Asgharpour’s “Another Birth” is an intricate mixed media pop-up book made through linocut, monoprint and etching, containing poetry in splendid Persian calligraphy with an English translation. The open page we can see is remarkable, but the fact that it is housed under a vitrine feels antithetical to the haptic nature of a pop-up book. A video of it being flipped through or photographs of additional pages would have satisfied this itch somewhat, as I understand the need to keep a one-of-a-kind edition safe, as much as I yearn to flip through it.
There are purely photographic works from “Snapshot” which exceed the scope of book art, such as Diane Durant’s gorgeous and necessary “Community Portraits (Made in the Image),” which records the queer community with tenderness and grace in a time where that makes all the difference. I was not expecting to see this piece, but am very glad I did, and hope others can too. An intentional fusion of the two shows could have been an interesting approach, but without this, the shows’ overlap reads as more of a confusing coincidence. Perhaps an overarching theme that encompasses both bodies of work would have made for a more harmonious exhibition, leaning into the ambiguity between subjects, materials and space.
Both “BOOK ART” and “Snapshot: Works by UTD Photo Faculty” are on view at the SP/N Gallery until Oct. 4, 2025.